Creighton holds off Iowa baseball

Creighton’s Carson Vitale went 5 for 5 with two homers and eight RBI to lead the Bluejays over the Iowa Hawkeyes 15-10 on Wednesday night at Rosenblatt Stadium. Creighton opened with a 12-0 lead only to see Iowa rally to get back in the game with a 10-1 rally over the final three innings.

Greg Hellhake (1-0) earned his first win since April 24, 2009 by throwing five scoreless frames and matching a career-high with five strikeouts. Mike Nihsen pitched to the final batter of the game, earning his first career save.

The Bluejays had 16 hits and helping Vitale was Jimmy Swift who added four hits and scored four runs, both marks matched career-highs.

Creighton rattled off nine runs on eight hits in the first two innings. Scott Thornburg’s two-run double and Vitale’s two-run single highlighted a first inning that saw the Jays send 10 men to the plate. Trever Adams and Joey Bowens also added RBI-singles in the inning, to make it 6-0 CU.

Jacobs faced one batter in the second before giving way to the Iowa bullpen. Vitale launched his first home run of the game, a three-run shot to center, to make it 9-0 CU. Vitale kept the runs coming in the fourth with his second homer; a two-run bomb deep in the left field bleachers that made it 11-0 Jays.

Another three-run rally in the sixth put the Jays up by a dozen. T.J. Roemmich laced an two-run double down the right field line and Vitale came up with another RBI, bringing home Roemmich with a double for the third run of the inning.